(07-Jan-2015, 23:59)chiphoust Wrote: I am a newbie. I hope this post is appropriate. If not, someone please tell me.
I have Martin Logan Summit X's and have been wanting to substitue solidstate for my current Audio Research 200 watt mnonblocks and ARC preamp, with a Bryston BDA-2 DAC and MacMini running Amararra.
About 9 months ago, the local dealer brought in a Devialet 250 to audition on his store demo Summit X's. He called me in to listen. It was breathtaking. In 40+ years of doing this, I had rarely, if ever, heard anything better. My wife was there and heard the same. All she wanted was a home audition. Regrettable, the dealer had to send the demo 250 back and that was that. No home auditoin. No purchase. 7 months later the dealer advised that he had a D200 for me to home audition. Off to the races, or so I thought. It was nice, but not breathtaking. It was a bit too forward and incisive in the upper midrange and treble, particularly female vocals. To continue to quote Robert Harley's recent Absolute Sounds review: It tended to "emplasize the harmonics of the strings rather than the instruments’ bodies. Cymbals were more prominent in the mix than through my reference amplifiers, and vocals had a touch of sibilance."
It also seemd a bit flat and uninvolving. I started getting fatigued about an hour into the listening session. There was no toe tapping and no singing-a-long by the wife. She was nonplussed. It seemed like the D200 was straining to contend with the low impedance of the ML's at higher volumes. One interesting thing of note: I had to turn down the Summit X powered subwoofers to get proper bass balance.
I am now waiting for a D200 companion to arrive to see if that solves the issue. It seemded to do it for Mr. Harley. I hope I have the same experience. I am told that the D400 configuration will stomp the D250 by itself.
I saw some ML Montis owners post about their positive experiences. Please share any thoughts you might have.
Oh.. by the way I do not think it is the speakers cables. They are Tranparent Reference, albeit the older XL technolgy.
I also plan to hook up my old, but pristine, pair of B&W Signature 30's to see how those boxes do. It should be wonderful. For now though, the real issue is what to use to drive the Summit X's.
I will post the results of the D400 audition in 2 weeks or so.
I did read your final post and am happy that D200 X 2 worked out. I hope you post again after you have had more time in the chair.
I too wanted to simplify my gear and also to not buy a $3000+ DAC so I have a D200 that I borrowed from the dealer running right now with my Summits. It is unbearable and will be going back tomorrow. That said, I hooked it up to a couple of Opera Primas and it sounds amazing...big bass and a huge sound-stage in a large room. I am not convinced these amps will get the best out of electrostatics. My long and costly experience is that Martin Logans need lots of solid state power to sound their best and a good neutral tube pre-amp to keep digititus at bay. Also, most amps with output transformers roll off the highs since they can't impedance match down to 0.6 ohms.
